A quiet blog that discusses LGBT issues, fiction, publishing, pop culture, and romance novels that may or may not be erotic romance.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Steve Grand Slammed; Ben Cohen Strips for Gays

Steve Grand Slammed
Last summer when country/pop singer, Steve Grand, released a music video I posted about him here. At the time he was so fresh there wasn't much I could find about him anywhere. But the one thing that did stand out about his song was the fact that it was all about a young gay man falling in love with a straight men, and how the young gay man winds up with a broken heart.

With the blog hop for equal rights this weekend I thought it would be appropriate to post something about gay country music star, Steve Grand, because he's making history, promoting equal rights, and breaking the stereotypes at the same time. I saw one post earlier today that linked to a Steve Grand post with a less than thrilling comment thread...pure garbage and filled with the kind of snark I don't tolerate anymore.

Since I wrote that post, Grand has continued to make history and break stereotypes, which isn't easy to do if you are gay because the same old sterotypes that have been following gay men around forever don't seem to go away. And even worse, people who claim to support gay men often seem to be the same people who crave those sterotypes. Because Steve Grand didn't just get heat from the comment thread I mentioned in the excerpt from the post above. He also got slammed for writing a song where a young gay man falls in love with a young straight man. Some seem to think Grand should have made the gay man fall in love with another gay man.

Here's a quote where Steve Grand responded to all this:

'Because this was my experience growing up. Many times,' Grand says. 'I grew
up in a predominantly heterosexual world. Most of the crushes I had were
straight men. Gay men were not visible. I wanted to tell a story that had been
burning inside me.''It’s a universal human story - unrequited love. Gay or straight, we’ve all
been there. When I started writing music, I was always writing about that. I was
always crushing on someone I couldn’t be with.'
I'd like to know what's so difficult to understand about that? Grand isn't writing an m/m romance. He's writing about his own life experience and it's coming from his heart, from his experience as a gay man. This isn't fantasy with HEA. This is reality. And because most gay men...me included...grew up in heteronormative worlds, our first crushes were directed toward straight men. And I think the most important thing to understand here is that Steve Grand, as the gay man, gets the last word about what it's like to be gay growing up in a straight world.

If all gay men had a normal puberty and they dated other gay men as YAs, I wouldn't even be writing this post. But the fact remains that gay men don't get a puberty like straight men and they usually wind up in impossible situations where unrequited love is inevitable.

Speaking of breaking stereotypes and unrequited love, British rugby player and gay activist, Ben Cohen, is coming out with a new calendar where all proceeds will benefit his foundation that focuses on stopping homophobia and bullying in schools. And according the photos on this web site to which I'm linking, he's going to raise a great deal of money and awareness. There's a video, too.

This time he has invited us for a sneak peak into the
shower and the locker room for a behind-the-scenes look.

Although Cohen is the perfect example of so many gay male fantasies, he is straight and he's comfortable with his status as a gay icon, so to speak. This also makes sense to me. He's a man. Gay men like men. And guess what, gay men like showers and locker rooms. I probably shouldn't have let that secret out of the proverbial bag, but there you are.

Cohen created The Ben Cohen Stand Up Foundation to Stop Homophobia and Bullying. You can check out the foundation's web site here. It's really a steller web site and I highly suggest looking at it.

In this article he talks about being on the reality TV show, Strictly Come Dancing, and states that he would be open to dancing with a man on TV. The reason I find that interesting is because I often watch the US show, Dancing with the Stars, and I always wonder why there are never two male contestants dancing in the competition. Too much for liberal left wing Hollywood to handle?

In any event, Cohen said this, in public:

"I’ve no qualms dancing with a woman or a man," Cohen is quoted by the Mirror as
saying. "Kristina [Rihanoff] will be easier to pick up though.”

I've always wanted to learn how to dance.

Shower image above can be found here.The copyright holder of this file allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all other use is permitted.

2 comments:

David
said...

There was that one dance where Steve Guttenberg had to dance with Jonathon because Anna had gotten hurt. I think they did good together, but yeah, would have loved seeing Lance Bass with this seasons Sasha. And Steve Grand has an AMAZING voice. I also like his new video to "Stay".

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